The partnership between Catholic and Protestant schools in Limavady visited this week by Hillary Clinton is an “examplar” of shared education, a leading academic has said.
Queen’s University Professor Tony Gallagher was speaking to Belfast after the collaboration between the Co Derry schools of St Mary’s and Limavady High School was recognised by former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week.
The former First Lady visited a ‘shared campus’ between the two schools, which sit next door to one another, earlier this week as part of a series of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Read more: Hillary Clinton greeted by smiling crowds in visit to Co Derry shared education campus
Professor Gallagher, a world-leading expert on the role of education in divided societies, said the visit of the former US Presidential candidate was designed to “celebrate” the work of the Limavady schools.
Limavady High School and its next door neighbour St Mary’s are in the process of completing a ‘shared campus’ that includes a new centre for science, technology, engineering and maths studies, along with a new shared sixth form centre.
Pupils from both schools – one of which is from the Catholic Maintained sector and the other from the Controlled schools sector – will share the new sixth form centre once it is up-and-running.
Professor Gallagher said the work between the two schools is an “exemplar” of a shared education model he believes can help young people overcome the “silos” associated with “divided school systems”.
“The core of the model is really quite simple,” he told Belfast Live.
“It’s about creating local, collaborative networks between schools and local communities where students move between schools to take classes and teachers develop professional learning communities and work to improve and expand their own expertise.
“That’s the essential idea. We worked for many years, funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and the International Fund for Ireland to try and develop effective models. It was eventually picked up by the Department of Education and the Education Authority, and just before coronavirus >Covid something like 60% of students were involved at some level in these type of educational partnerships.”
He continued: “The basic problem with divided school systems in a divided society is that it creates networks of friendship between young people that are within their own community. We have had plenty of evidence in the past that once they have left school those closed off friendships remain very much intact.
“What shared education does, in the same way I suppose as integrated schools are doing, is to disrupt those silos by creating networks of friendship, of contact across communities.
“Over the years we have been working we have found plenty of evidence that it does have an impact on people’s perceptions, on their views on community relations issues, and on their attitudes towards others in our society. So the evidence is that it does have a very positive impact. One of the advantages of the shared education approach is that it can be implemented much more quickly than something like integrated schools. Integrated schools are great, they do great work, and with the bill that was passed at the Assembly it is likely that the number of integrated schools will increase which is a good sign.
“In the meantime, what shared education does is allows people to be who they are but provides opportunities for dialogue and engagement.”
On the Limavady schools in particular, Professor Gallagher added: “The schools in Limavady have been working together in various different ways for many years. We were able to build on the foundations that were already there and take it to new levels.
"The Limavady schools are close to completing the first shared education campus where the two schools have effectively joined their futures together. There is a new STEM centre which is open and running, there’s lots of shared classes there, and there’s a sixth form centre which is almost completed.
"They have always been very much in the lead in this. The school partnership has probably the greatest level of shared activity.
“Limavady is an examplar among the partnerships involved in this. That’s why we wanted, when Secretary Clinton was over, to celebrate this work.”
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